


window blues

by starlight_sugar



Category: Campaign (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, Pre-Heist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-17 02:51:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16966296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlight_sugar/pseuds/starlight_sugar
Summary: “I have a business proposition,” he says. “And I missed you.”





	window blues

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is part of the AUcember series, a self-made challenge where I try to write a new AU one-shot every day. This was originally posted on Tumblr on December 1st and is being cross-posted upon request. You can read all of the AUcember fics in the collection linked above.
> 
> The title of this fic comes from [Window Blues](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp3-EmV-_7Q) by Band of Horses.

Aava is the last person Tryst tracks down. Not because he doesn’t want to see her - he’s dreamed of seeing her again for years. Pretty literally, actually. Aava shows up in a lot of his dreams, both the sexy kind and the not-sexy kind. And the sad kind. She’s in a lot of those too.

But Aava isn’t the first person he looks for when he gets out of jail. He’s done this math a couple times in his head: who’s going to be upset if they’re not higher on the list, who he needs first for the plan to work, who he wants to see. A four-year prison sentence ruins your social contact list, but Trystan Valentine has a very good social contact list.

So he gets out and he calls Bacta, which means that he also calls Leenik and Grizelle. He calls Christmas, not for work reasons but because she’ll be mad if he doesn’t. He calls Rendezvous, not because she cares but because she’ll give him a pretty solid smuggling-underworld rundown.

He calls Lyn, because she’ll tell him if he planned a bad heist, and then she’ll fix it. And he’s on the phone with Lyn for hours after they finish talking shop, because he missed talking to Lyn. He missed talking with a lot of people, but Lyn is the only one with the emotional wherewithal to realize it.

It’s not until after that, and after his contacts call their contacts, and every other piece of this puzzle is assembled, that he goes to Atlanta.

He triple-checks the information and the address before he gets on the plane. Renn gets it from Zero, and Leenik gets it himself, and Tryst does some internet sleuthing to check it on his own. And then he’s in Atlanta, waiting outside an office building, hoping that Leenik actually remembered to call and to use the right code.

Atlanta is colder than Tryst expected, and his leather jacket isn’t enough to keep him warm. A side-effect of jail in New Mexico, he thinks, rubbing his hands together and trying to blow warm air into them. Completely ruins your ability to regulate heat. He’s getting sloppy. Aava is going to rip him to shreds if she realizes it - when she realizes it. If she talks to him.

He only has to wait about ten minutes before Aava breezes out of the office building, moving like a woman with a mission. She slows to a careful stop when she sees Tryst. She’s still dressed to the nines, shiny heels and a red scarf pulled over her mouth and a heavy black peacoat. Her face doesn’t change as she looks him up and down. He’s never been good at reading her, and he’s rusty now, but he thinks - hopes - that the flicker of light in her eyes is a good thing.

“Walk with me,” she says, and it’s a shock to Tryst’s nervous system. He’s heard her voice in dreams and memories and all that bullshit, but it’s different to hear her again, the way she inflects syllables, how polished she sounds. He missed her. He’s going to have to remember to say that.

He’s so surprised that when he blinks, Aava is already headed down the sidewalk. He has to hurry to catch up to her, falling into step beside her. No, not quite beside her, still a little bit behind. He has to give her space. “Can I buy you dinner?”

Aava snorts. “With what money?”

“Leenik’s money.”

“Of course it is.”

“Hey, he’s a generous and giving friend-”

“And you stole his wallet,” Aava finishes. Tryst can’t get a good look at her face, but fuck, he didn’t realize how much he missed the feeling of her laughing at him.

He’s had moments like this for the last two weeks, with more or less everyone he talked to. He forgot the specific lilt of Lyn’s accent, and the weird thing Bacta does when he hugs Tryst where he sort of scrunches his fingers through Tryst’s hair, and how Leenik’s awkward silences are never actually that awkward. He forgot what Christmas sounds like when she cries.

But it’s different when it’s… well, when it’s Aava. He remembers some things, of course, but it’s different hearing her heels clicking on the sidewalk. It’s different when he’s trying to get a reaction out of her, just to see if it’s like he remembered it. Not that he’ll be able to tell if he remembered it wrong or if she’s changed, but he still needs to know. Even if she says no, he needs to try.

“I might’ve stolen his wallet,” Tryst says breezily. “One of them. He has, like, four.”

“And one of them is specifically for you to steal?”

“Well, I have to assume so, it’s my favorite color.”

“You’re telling me Leenik keeps a sparkly red wallet on him?”

Tryst almost stops walking. Aava remembers his favorite color? Aava remembers his favorite color. “You’re telling me that’s a surprise?” he says, but it’s a little weak with surprise.

Aava must be able to tell that she’s getting to him, because she turns to stare up at him, stopping dead in the street. Her scarf is still covering her mouth, and he can’t read her eyes as she searches him. “Why are you here, Trystan,” she says, and that, that’s more like the Aava he remembers. Cold and distant, and just thin enough that he can hear the emotion rolling underneath it.

Tryst smiles down at her. He can’t help it. “I have a business proposition,” he says. “And I missed you.”

“If you missed me, you shouldn’t have gotten caught,” Aava says, but there’s a hitch to her voice. “And if you want to buy me dinner, you probably can’t afford it.”

“I know.” Tryst digs into his pocket and comes up with Leenik’s credit card, one under a fake name. “But I’m pretty sure Nikki Gallo can.”

Aava sighs. “He is never going to learn how to make a good fake name,” she mutters, and Tryst knows that he has her. “But I’ve gone legit-”

“Right.” He winks exaggeratedly. “Where do you want-”

“No, Tryst, I mean it. I’m out of the game.”

“I’m still doing the business proposition,” Tryst says, because regardless of whether or not she’s legit or he believes it, he didn’t violate his parole and come to fucking Atlanta to get shut down without even trying. “There’s even a plan in place.”

Aava narrows her eyes. “Your plan?”

“My idea, Lyn’s plan.”

Aava keeps staring up at Tryst. He wonders if she’s doing the same thing that he is: trying to size him up, see how he’s changed. Trying to memorize him all over again, just in case.

“I know a good ramen place a couple blocks away,” she says at last.

Tryst exhales, a faint cloud of fog billowing out of his mouth. “Thank you,” he says quietly.

Aava turns away quickly. “Follow me,” she says, and makes a point of walking a few paces ahead of Tryst the rest of the way to the restaurant.

She doesn’t say anything else to him, other than her ramen order, until they’re sitting in the restaurant with two bowls in front of them. Tryst wants to ask about her life, about what her new job is, about if she likes being corporate now. But he knows the way Aava operates. That’s not going to endear him to her. This has to be at her pace.

She finally sets her phone on the table and looks at him. “What’s the job?”

“Three casinos, one night.”

“You’re insane.”

Tryst pulls an SD card out of his pocket. “Lyn told me to give this to you. It has a better sales pitch, because she thinks you’ll listen to her more than you’ll listen to me.”

“That beautiful genius,” Aava murmurs as she takes it. Her fingers don’t brush against Tryst’s or anything, and Tryst isn’t disappointed by that, because that would be stupid. Stupid, and desperate, and god, he missed Aava so much. “She’s running point?”

“She’s point. Leenik’s on computers.”

“Of course.”

“Bacta’s our inside man, and we’ve got a couple of friends on demolitions and escape routes. You would be our face.”

“And what are you?”

Tryst leans back in his chair, grinning. “I’m the bait.”

“Right,” Aava says, blatant disbelief on her face. “Trystan, I’m flattered that you came all this way to see me, but I’m legitimate now. I work for an insurance company. That is exactly the opposite of what you’re asking me to do.”

“You can say no.”

“Can I?”

“Yes,” Tryst says, surprised by his own intensity. Aava is too, given by the way she goes still. “Look, it- I’m here asking you because I trust you, Aava. I know that you’re competent, and capable, and I would feel a lot better doing this job if you were there doing it with me. But I’ve been gone a long time, and it’s been long enough for you to change. There are other people we can ask. We have a backup list, and it’s a good one, too. If you say no, then you walk out of here with free dinner, and you can go back to your fancy building and your fancy shoes and your-” he waves a hand at her. “Your life. Whatever that looks like now.”

Aava’s staring at him. Tryst has to try so, so hard to avoid fidgeting, but it’s almost a physical feeling, her eyes on him.

“You grew up a lot,” she says at last, disbelief coloring her voice. “If you have other people, why are you asking me?”

Tryst shrugs. “I mean, all that stuff I said is true, I want you on the team. But mostly I just wanted to see you again.”

Aava keeps staring at him. Tryst takes the opportunity to start swirling his ramen with a fork, not really trying eat anything. Just trying to do… something, to distract himself from the fact that she hasn’t given an answer.

“I do have a life here,” Aava says at last. “One that means a lot. One that I can’t just up and leave for two weeks at the drop of the hat.”

Tryst nods, trying to not let his disappointment show. It hurts more than he thought it would, but he can’t begrudge her her new life. “Well, you don’t-”

“So,” she continues, voice steely, “I can’t give you an answer until I have time to look at everything in detail. So I know if it’s worth it.”

“We need to know by tomorrow.”

“Then I have plans for tonight.”

“And here I was hoping we could have some other plans for tonight,” Tryst mutters.

Aava blinks, looking taken aback, and Tryst has a split second to worry that that was too forward - people can change a lot in four years, can fall in love and get married and forget all about the guy they used to sleep with who got sent to prison for ruining a heist - before her lips start curving into a smile. Not a smirk or anything sarcastic, but a genuine, pleased smile. It changes her whole demeanor, lights her up. Tryst can’t look away. He can’t forget what this looks like again.

“Why, Trystan,” Aava drawls, and leans forward to settle one hand on Tryst’s forearm, trailing her fingertips up and down the sleeve of his jacket. “Are you coming on to me?”

Now, this, Tryst knows how to do. It’s like riding a bicycle. He keeps stirring his ramen with his free hand and slides one foot forward until he finds Aava’s leg under the table. “That depends,” he says, and hooks his ankle around hers. “Is it working?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Aava says, and Tryst huffs out a laugh. Her smile only widens, and her lips part into a sigh. “God, I missed-”

Her hand goes still on Tryst’s arm. She looks frozen for a second, like she can’t believe what she almost said.

“Hey,” Tryst says quietly. He drops his fork to take Aava’s free hand, curling his fingers around hers gently. “It’s okay.”

“You’d better not go back to prison, Valentine,” Aava says. Her voice is thick with emotion, but her face is as blank as ever. “This had better fucking be worth it.”

“It will be,” Tryst promises. Aava’s fingers curl into his, and her nails bite into his skin, just barely. “Aava, it will be.”

Aava doesn’t say anything, but she pushes one of her feet against Tryst’s under the table. And that’s enough of an answer for him.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on Tumblr and Twitter @waveridden!


End file.
